One of the highlights of visiting my grandparents in a small Florida community was having a nickel in hand when I walked along the railroad to town.There were only two places to buy treats, the gas station or the drug store.I usually preferred to spend my five cents on a chocolate ice cream cone from the drug store after I picked up the mail at the post office.On the walk home I could slowly enjoy every slurp. An alternate treat was a frosty cold orange or grape Nehi soda from the gas station.

Returning to my suburban home, I had two options for snacks and curios: Anthony's 5 & Dime or the Drug Store. Getting there required a bike ride or a long walk. Many items at the 5 & Dime really were 5 or 10 cents - Neccos, Peanut Butter Logs, Sugar Daddy, Butterfingers, French Burnt Peanuts, Moon Pie, Red Hots, and Candy Cigarettes. Nik 'n Nip was a package of 2 inch wax soda bottles filled with sweet colored juice. You bit off the wax bottle top, sucked the juice and then chewed on the wax until you were tired of it. Wax lips were a similar treat. For 1 cent you could buy Double Bubble drum shaped pink bubblegum or red jawbreakers. At the corner Drug Store, which really was on the corner of our shopping strip, there was a food counter with swivel stools. You could get a banana split or a chocolate malt for 25 cents. The malt was made right before your eyes, in a tall stainless steel cup. The shake was poured into a glass, topped with whipped cream and a cherry, and you were even served the leftover shake in the steel cup. It was difficult to choose between ice cream and cherry cokes.

Sometimes the treats came right to our street by way of The Popsicle Truck. You could hear his bell ringing a street or two away, and that was the time to open your piggy bank or plead with a parent for a nickel or dime. The popsicle man would stop many times, whenever anyone ran over to him all along the street. Since the neighborhood playground was at the end of our street, we were a favorite road for business. Choices were pictured on the outside of the truck. My favorites were banana or strawberry popsicles, creamsicles, fudgesicles, and Nutty Buddies, a sugar cone with hardened dipped chocolate and nuts over vanilla ice cream.

On bus trips downtown which we took on Saturdays about twice a month my brother and I were allowed to choose candy from May-Cohen's Department Store or Woolworth's. There was a long glass enclosed counter with an overwhelming supply of beautiful candies. We each got a very small portion of a favorite, served to us in a little brown paper bag. I remember chocolate malted milk balls, chocolate covered peanut clusters, nonpareils, Jordan almonds, and orange slice wedges. Making that bag of treats last all the way home was a challenge.

Candies and treats in years past varied according to location. What were some of your favorites?

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

The first family car I remember was our 1956 four door, two-tone green Chevrolet Bel Air. We had it in the '50s to the '60s and it served us well. My dad was the only driver for years and he wanted a big car that could pull a boat - almost a necessity for Florida families.

We only took one long distance family vacation in this car, driving from Florida to St. Louis, MO to see my dad's family. We were adhering to Dinah Shore's signature song, "See the USA, in your Chev-ro-let, America is asking you to call." The trip was in the summer and we made stops along the way to get Georgia peaches, SEE ROCK CITY, TN (a famous advertising scheme to paint these words on the roofs of barns and buildings all over the South), and other sites. Without air conditioning, our windows were open most of the time to try to stay cool without being blown away. We pulled over at rest stops and had picnics, and I can still see Daddy pulling the supplies out of the big trunk, and cutting up a juicy watermelon for us. With our family of four, my brother and I were in the back seat and had room to spread out and nap. No seat belts at this time, so we were not restricted to a position, which on a long trip turned into occasional disputes of "he's/she's on my side."

When family came to visit us, we had to all pile into the Chevy for outings to the beach or sightseeing. We put at least eight people in the car at times: our four and my grandparents, a great aunt, and a cousin. Since I was the youngest, I was chosen to sit on the floor of the backseat, squeezing between everyone's feet. No wonder I got car sick all the time.

We enjoyed driving to the beach sometimes on a Saturday or after church on Sundays. Back then we could drive right onto the beach, before several large hurricanes destroyed the shoreline. We parked about half way between the boardwalk and the water's edge, and if we stayed long enough we would have to move the car back as the tide came in. There were always people who forgot to move their car and it would get swallowed up in the quickening sand. Tow trucks were constantly going back and forth on the beach looking for business. Our favorite spot was only about 11 miles away, but the drive coming home seemed to take forever. We couldn't wait to call dibs for first in the shower to wash off the salt and sand. Daddy would hose down the car to clean it up, too.

Daddy liked to hunt, fish, and haul things so he eventually sold the Chevy and went through a variety of trucks, jeeps, and vans. About that time my mother had to learn to drive for a new job as an itinerant Spanish teacher for the County. She was thrilled to buy her first car, a white Corvair, making us a two car family. The Corvair turned out to be a dangerous model. With the engine in the rear, it was prone to spin and flip, which it did for us one day. Mom was passing someone on a two lane road and the person suddenly turned left in front of us. When she hit the brakes, the car spun around and flipped completely upside down, leaving us hanging by our 'across the lap' seat belts. Injuries were minor, thankfully. Ralph Nader labeled the Corvair as "unsafe at any speed." The only great thing about this car was that it had air conditioning. We didn't even have that luxury in our house.